Taylor Swift performs on stage at the Burswood Dome during the opening night of her "Speak Now" Australian tour in Perth, Australia. (March 2, 2012) Photo Credit: AP

"All the invitations went out a long time ago," before Swift had started dating Conor Kennedy, bride Kyle Kennedy's first cousin, Gifford told "Today" co-host Hoda Kotb. Gifford said Conor Kennedy never sent an RSVP, but only contacted mother-of-the-bride Victoria Gifford Kennedy, Kathie Lee's stepdaughter, "an hour earlier and said basically, 'Can I bring my girlfriend?' [This was] a beautiful sit-down dinner that had been planned for months."

Victoria Kennedy told the Boston Herald Wednesday that Conor "texted me an hour before the wedding and asked if they could come" to the reception for Kyle Kennedy and Liam Kerry at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel. Told no, "They came anyway. . . . I personally went up to Ms. Swift, whose entrance distracted the entire event, politely introduced myself to her, and asked her as nicely as I could to leave. It was like talking to a ghost. She seemed to look right past me."

Gifford concurred. "The truth is -- because I was there -- Vicki's . . . account of what happened in Boston is accurate," Gifford said, adding that she learned only afterward that Swift, 22, had twice been asked to leave.

Swift's spokeswoman did not respond to a Newsday request for comment. She told the Herald that, "Taylor was invited to the wedding and the bride thanked her profusely for being there."